Climate Change

 

Overtime the government have become more and more aware of the causes and effects of climate change. As a result, in 2009, the Scottish Parliament passed the Climate change act. The main aim of the act was to initially reduce emission levels by 42% and then by 80% by 2050. Initially I was unsure of the exact definition of what an emission was and the dictionary told me it was ‘the production and discharge of something, especially gas or radiation’.  This act holds the general public responsible to act in the best way to reduce these emissions such as by recycling, using less energy and by travelling by bike/public transport to reduce emissions from  cars.

The act is made up of many parts, one of these is that parliament must set annual targets for levels of emissions each year and must not exceed these targets. One provision to attempt to reach these targets was the implementation of the 5pence carrier bag charge. This act was passed on the 20th of October 2014 and requires all shops to charge 5pence for a carrier bag. The rationale behind this was to encourage people to re-use bags to cut down on the amount of plastic bags being wasted by being thrown in the bin. This has had a positive impact despite being met with some unhappiness or criticism at first. The number of plastic bags being handed out was cut by 80% in the first year that this act was implemented. I myself was impacted by this as in my house we use large ‘bags for life’ to do our shopping with and very rarely ever take a plastic bag from a shop. Should I ever end up with a plastic bag I will keep it and i will use it for putting my lunch box in so it does not leak or my boyfriend will use it to bring home his dirty football boots after games. Also in my home town of Helensbrugh the council want to change rubbish bin collections to every three weeks to encourage more people to recycle. This however is being met with a lot of protest from locals who think that even if they recycle the bin will still overflow.

 

FIND OUT HOW TO REDUCE YOUR FOOTPRINT

Our top tips can help you get started on reducing your carbon footprint.
Who knows? You might end up changing the way you live.

 

I calculated my carbon footprint on the WWF Footprint calculator and discovered that I had a carbon footprint of 157%. This number did not come as much as a surprise to me as I am aware that a large part of my footprint comes from the amount of travelling I do. Both my boyfriend and I live in Ayr and tend to walk everywhere in Ayr but our families both live in Argyll and Bute and we visit often meaning that we clock up quite a few miles over a weekend should we visit. I am pretty good at recycling and recycle paper, glass and cans. I do not have a food waste bin so all food goes into the general bin along with our other non recyclables. I am also pretty good at turning of lights and not leaving items on standby- but this was not done for environmental reasons but more to save on bills.

 

To improve my carbon footprint I will continue to walk more rather than take taxis or buses. I will also see if i can get a food waste bin or start my own. I also believe that I could shop a lot more locally and seasonally as i tend to shop at Aldi because it is cheap and I am not to greatly concerned about where my food comes from but to be more environmentally considerate I could take a greater interest in my food and shopping locally.